Louisiana Books

THE MEMORY OF GILLS has been a long time coming. Not as long of course as the eons it's been since we had gills. Lucky for us it is finally here, because it is a gem among all the others beckoning from the shelves for our attention. So here's my suggestion, snap it up, run home and dive in.

Read it in the attic in the old rocker, out on the porch on the swing or by the sea with the waves nipping at your toes. With the zest of one who's moved around a bit we get views from the depths of love, eye to eye with clover, peaking from under the covers, and from places that only exist in the magic of poetry.

You'll have to force yourself to put this book down, to savor it in smaller bits, rather then swallowing it whole and still feeling hungry. With sights and smells, sounds and sympathies you'll march along from poem to poem completely oblivious to the rest of the world.

THE MEMORY OF GILLS is an excellent example of the poetry of persistence. With this book in hand we are brought to a place where we can benefit from the years of work, the diligent reworking, and the brushing away of rejection notices to find a home with a publisher that decided Catherine Carter's poems had evolved to the point that they could breathe on their own.

Edward Turner was born about 1768, probably near Boston, a descendant of early settlers in the Plymouth Colony. In 1791, he was commissioned an ensign in the U.S. Army, serving thereafter in New England as a paymaster and quartermaster, and being promoted to captain in 1794, with supply duties on the frontier. Two years later, he was in command of a company at Ft. Fayette (near Pittsburgh), accompanied by a new wife. In 1802, he found himself at Nashville, then Ft. Pickering, near the present site of Memphis. By the following year, he was at Ft. Adams, Mississippi Territory, where he was summoned by Gov. William C. C. Claiborne and told he was to be in charge of supplying the federal troops being moved to New Orleans following the Louisiana Purchase. Claiborne continued the colonial Louisiana practice of having local military commanders serve also as civil administrators, so when Turner was sent in April 1804 to establish an American military presence at the town of Natchitoches, he was to serve also as the local head of government. When he was replaced a year later, Turner resigned his commission and was immediately appointed Judge of Natchitoches County. He was later appointed the first postmaster as well, organized a local militia, and carried out a census, in addition to acquiring and expanding plantation holdings in the area. His promising career in the new state was cut short in 1811, however, by one of the periodic waves of malaria and he and his wife both were buried within forty-eight hours. This biographical research was developed by Richard M. Lytle in the process of writing a master's thesis, but the bulk of this volume consists of the unusually legible military records he uncovered at the National Archives and which were transcribed by Womack, a well-known Louisiana genealogist with a deserved reputation for producing careful work. This includes muster rolls and payrolls of Turner's Company for the period 1802-1805. Some of the men listed were part of the unit at Nashville and at Ft. Adams, while others joined in New Orleans and in Natchitoches itself. Some of them also were discharged there and may well have descendants in northwest Louisiana.

For people interested in the life experience of Southern civilians in the 1860's, Stephen Ash should be a prime resource. And for those interested in the totality of our civil war, there is no better place to gain a view than in Middle Tennessee. In 1860, Middle Tennessee was one of the most prosperous sections of the South, filled with successful, even rich, farms and farmers, many of them slaveholders. However, the people of the area were hardly of one view, and when it fell to Union forces in the spring of 1862, Professor Ash paints a vivid picture of the section's rapid decline into "utter social and institutional anarchy."

One of the debates among historians over the time since this book came out relates to the question, was the Civil War a total war? Regardless how one defines total war, or the conclusion one reaches, this book brings into view one great cost the people of the South paid when they entered into a war that would be lost. They had a stable government and a safe living situation before the war began. When Tennessee left the Union to join a new government, and that government was driven away and destroyed, the real terrors and scourges of war, terror and anarchy, filled the void. Anarchy was just as sharp an instrument of harsh war as were any official Union policies designed to destroy the war-making capability of the Confederacy.

I can here some of you now: "Well, I'm not interested in social history; I wanna read about the real war." If so, heed the words of Gary Gallagher, who hailed this book as a new and necessary sort of military history, "connecting the experiences of soldiers in the field and civilians on the home front ... providing a social context within which to understand military events." War isn't hell? Look here. You'll think otherwise.

Although the world of poetry certainly has more than its share of nature-praising verse, Alison Hawthorne Deming has thrown another log on the fire with her poetry sequence The Monarchs. A native of Connecticut who now lives in Arizona, she views the wild nature of the Southwest with the wisdom and appreciation of a former New England city liver. So what does Deming offer as one more in a sea of nature lovers? Undoubtedly, one thing is what Scott Slovic calls Deming's "abiding fascination with natural science." The colorful imagery and unique metaphors of Deming's semi-scientific verse paint a more stirring picture than any emotional commentary could. In Writing the Sacred into the Real, Deming says, "What science-bashers fail to appreciate is that scientists, in their unflagging attraction to the unknown, love what they don't know. It guides and motivates their work; it keeps them up late at night; and it makes that work poetic."
Deming herself studies the human race in a similar way, approaching with compassion its mistakes and absurdities. While, on the one hand, the activities of people and the creatures of the natural world mirror one another, Deming's Nature sometimes chances by as a separate entity, transcending human struggles; like the Monarchs flying over the fearful townspeople in poem 4, Nature goes diligently about its business, oblivious to both our fear and fascination.
A refreshing honesty underlies Deming's poetry: she is unwilling to glorify the elements of humanity that are popularly glorified, such as common perceptions of love, which she boldly declares a result of "misunderstandings" in poem 16. She also refuses to attribute an unrealistic intelligence to the nobility of Nature; instead she laments, as in poem 24, the intellect that often spoils human living:
Unlike animals that respond
more impulsively to a stimulus,
our continual adjustment of
internal to external relations
opens the way for postponing
action, deliberating, reflection -
a new quality of mind evolving,
which, quite naturally, feels
confused by its urgencies,
because the ancient part
wants to act and the newer part
insists on imagining action.
Deming is not a cynic however. While she periodically equates love with untruth, she acknowledges in poem 23 that "to love is all there is / to separate us from tyrants, from the dark." Moreover, her sporadic references to dreaming make a gracious allowance for human frailty. From the would-be rapist in poem 2 to the child in poem 8 trying to dig to China, the human race engages in moments of absurd dreaming. Our dreams make us as precious or pitiable as the Monarch babies of poem 9 that "awake in a little park / surrounded by ruined cities, / not a doubt in their minuscule / minds that blooming fields await them."
The Monarchs is a contemplative study of the human race and the natural world of which it is both apart and separate. Through thought provoking insights and colorful imagery, readers of this volume will agree that Deming has met her own challenge to "make a thing out of this chaos, a thing / that will last."

Whether you are a politician, political wonk, and student or just interested in the election process for our country, this book is required reading! Rod Smith's approach is surprising and shows that our democracy could be in trouble because of the recent reforms for campaign financing. The data he presents clearly shows the "power of the incumbency". He also demonstrates and explains how people of means have greater access to being involved while the average citizen gets priced out of the election process.

I have run for public office and can attest to the fact that "richer" opponents can simply dig into deeper personal pockets and buy media time and signs, hire staff and sponsor activities that other candidates just cannot afford. The person of means can simply write a personal check. Most candidates are limited by law as to how much may be contributed by an individual or corporation. In the end, this translates into only the wealthy being able to run. It is a concern to those of us who value liberty and the right to run for public office.

Ron Smith is a highly regarded poet whose voice is both muscular and tender. The work is this new collection range from his poignant recollections of a southern boyhood to his odyssey in the Mediterranean isles in the later years of his life. Not to be missed.

As a scholar of folkltales, it was a pleasure to find this lovely book included in the 2004 list of Notable Social Studies Books for Young People. The author has sensitively documented a Louisiana Native American creation story with spare and well-chosen language. Her use of image-filled repetition creates the relentless power of the storm brilliantly. As in most folktales, she keeps the focus on how the characters solve the problem before them thus emphasizing the Native American's relationship with the natural world. I look forward to more books by Rose Anne St. Romain.

I am well pleased with the book. It arrived on time and in good condition.
Bonnie Cadwell

I was stunned by the beauty of this book-- both its words and the pictures. It evokes a time and place that should not be forgotten.

My grandmother and mother were great cooks but the children were never allowed in the kitchen, until all stoves were cooled down and knives cleaned and put away. Imagine when I got married and didn't have a clue...My first attempt at cooking red beans ended when I was using a potato masher on the beans,(after an hour),to make them thicken some?
Well the rice was even worse, and butter didn't help at all. I couldn't get in touch with my mom and my mother-in-law could only laugh hysterically.
Somewhere I found the "Mrs Simms Fun Cooking Guide". ('68 version...in '74). "BLUSHING RICE"...perfect first time...and still is 33 years later. "ROASTBEEF SUPREME"...every Sunday, and guess what? My mom askes every time, "How do you make this?" (I'm not telling, it's the mustard).
Raising and feeding nine children and having numerous dinner parties, I have never gone wrong as long as my dishes come from this incredible, yet simple cookbook. So easy... so delicious. Always. No matter how low key or high falutin', it is always a winning dish, whatever you choose to serve. JUST STICK TO "THE" RECIPE MRS SIMMS WROTE. Don't add tobasco, or Tony's to the pot,(add it to yours if you wish). Don't tamper with perfection.
MY original book is so very worn, mostly pages 31 (Roast Beef Supreme....drool, and the gravy, oh..) pg. 32 (who would know what Swiss Steak,out of round steak, could possibly end up like this?), pg. 34 (Chicken Okra Gumbo, need I say more?), pg.47(Smothered Ham and Cabbage, if you hated cabbage, you won't anymore ), pg. 38 (Smothered Pork Chops)...omg!, and thank God for mrs Simms' Blushing Rice to go with it, page 72 in the '68 book....
For me it all started with my simple question of "How do I cook rice?". And I have tested and tasted it MANY ways. The only way, in my opinion, is the Blushing Way, Mrs Simms Way....
I hit this site looking for originals, or new, for my children...(9)...
I plan on keeping my original.
Lisa Harper-Cairns New Orleans,LA